Macromedia RSS Feeds
Macromedia has publicly accessible XML feeds available from the Developer Center. The XML feed contains information about all the latest articles and resources. The Developer Center team updates the feed whenever new content is added to Developer Center.
Why are we doing this? The idea came from our developers who wanted to be able to display links to the latest Macromedia news and resources on their websites. We're making this feed available so that developers can use this information in their Macromedia Flash applications and other parts of their websites.
The XML feed is an RSS 1.0 feed. This feed follows the RSS 1.0 standard.
Note: There was a previous version of the Developer Center XML feed. The first feed was the original Macromedia Resource Feed and has been discontinued. This feed had a custom DTD defined by Macromedia and was designed specifically for the Macromedia Developer center. Use the new RSS 1.0 feed instead.
Macromedia Developer Center RSS 1.0 Feed
The Macromedia Developer Center Center RSS feed is an RSS 1.0 feed which contains links to all articles, tutorials and other resources published on the Macromedia Developer Center. The feed uses the Dublin Core module to provide additional information fields to the feed.
You can consume to the Macromedia Developer Center RSS 1.0 feed at the following URL:
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/dev_center/index.rdf
If you want to view (not consume) the Macromedia Developer Center RSS feed, view it using the following URL:
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/dev_center/
Macromedia Product RSS Feeds
The Macromedia Product RSS Feeds broadcast product-specific technical information. This includes product updates, security bulletins, and TechNotes, as well as the Developer Center articles included in the Developer Center RSS Feed. Each feed contains information from various sources pertaining to a single product—perfect for developers who specialize in one or two and need to have all the latest product news.
Find out more about the Macromedia Product RSS Feeds >
Using the XML feeds
So how are these feeds used? It depends on what application you want to use them in. Here's a brief overview of two ways to use the XML feeds.
ColdFusion MX
ColdFusion MX has native support for parsing XML. You can use the XML feed
as a data source within ColdFusion to create dynamic content for an HTML
page or Macromedia Flash application.
Macromedia Flash MX 2004
Macromedia provides the RSS 1.0 feed in an environment where Flash developers
can consume it from any domain. The server hosting the RSS feed has a crossdomain.xml
policy file that lets all public users consume the feed. For more information
on cross-domain security and the crossdomain.xml file, see Security
Changes in Macromedia Flash Player 7.
Macromedia Flash Player has XML parsing capabilities built-in XML parsing capabilities. This means that you can load the XML into the player, parse it, and pull out the information you need. In Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004, you can use the XMLConnector component to connect to the feed. (To make it even simpler, use the Data Connection wizard to connect to the feed. See Data for Designers: Connecting to Data in Flash Using Data Wizards for more information on using the wizard.) This is the most direct way to consume the feed.
You could also have the Flash movie load the XML through a middleware page (such as ColdFusion) which resides on the same server as the Flash movie. The middleware page retrieves the XML data, and returns it to Flash. For instructions and downloadable example files, refer to Loading data across domains (TechNote 16520).
Basically, the Flash movie would use the XML.load action with the CFM file instead of trying to load the XML directly. The ColdFusion page would then load the XML from the actual XML document, and then send it back to Flash.
More Information About XML and the XML Feed
If you would like to learn more about using XML with Macromedia Flash, see the Data Connectivity page in the Macromedia Flash Data Integration Learning Guide.
Updates
- 08/09/2004 Updated to include Macromedia Product RSS Feeds.
- 03/10/2004 Updated to include information about the crossdomain.xml policy file and new URL (http://rss.macromedia.com/go/devcenter_rss).
- 03/10/2004 Removed information on the original XML feed which was replaced by the RSS feed.
- 03/27/2003 Updated to include information about the new Macromedia RSS 1.0 feed.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about the Developer Center XML feed, please feel free to contact Mike Chambers. Please direct any product-specific questions concerning the use of the XML to Macromedia Online Forums.
Macromedia XML Resource Feed (Discontinued)
The Macromedia resource feed used to be available in XML format with a DTD file describing its structure. That feed has been discontinued and replaced by the RSS feed described above. Please use the RSS feed instead.
About the author Mike Chambers has been creating applications integrating Macromedia Flash with server side technologies (ColdFusion, Java, ASP, and PHP) for a number of years. He currently heads up the community management team at Macromedia and is also the Flash Community Manager. He has written and spoken extensively on Macromedia Flash and Rich Internet Applications and is co-author of "Flash Enabled: Flash Design and Development for Devices" as well as "Generator and Flash Demystified." Mike maintains a weblog focusing on Flash news and information. Mike received his Masters in International Economics and European Studies from the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1998.
